July 2009

I’ve been watching the reports about Beth Ditto’s collection for Evans for quite some time. It launches this week. I have no strong opinion on Beth herself – I don’t like her music but I do like that she’s unapologetically fat, queer, unafraid to say what she means, unafraid to rock the boat, etc etc. It’s nice to see a fat woman in the pages of fashion magazines, it’s nice to see her rocking out with Kate Moss, it’s even nice to see her naked on the front of the NME. (The NME is usually an Old Boys Club of the highest order. My friend Rhian wrote an amusing diatribe here about this.)

I do like her, but I don’t always like what she wears. Clearly, I support her wearing whatever the fuck she wants, and I’m definitely all for fat fashion that says “fuck you I refuse to hide myself and my body”, but most of what I’ve seen her in I wouldn’t wear myself. So I was looking forward to the collection with some trepidation.

I saw a press release in Grazia last week. I’ve ended up with a subscription to Grazia since another magazine folded and Grazia offered their magazine as a fill in for the remainder of my subscription. I don’t mind Grazia, and never have. It’s a fashion magazine yes, but there is also srs bsns journalism in there, and it’s less gossipy than a lot of women’s magazines. It’s a cheap enough and easy enough read, and I do like that they’re even covering Beth’s stuff.

The clothes… weren’t awful. Maybe not exactly what I’d choose but nice enough. My main problem was the price. I really liked the purple sequin top but at £65 there’s no way I could justify buying it. (Is it a top or a dress? Grazia says one and Look says another…)

I guess that’s where my fear lies – that the collection is aimed at women aged say 18-30 and I’m smack bang in the middle of that (I’m 25), and I do not have the disposable income* to drop that, and that if I don’t others don’t either, and therefore the collection will fail and Evans will say “There’s no point us doing anything like this because women don’t want it”. When in fact we DO want it, we ust can’t afford the bloody things.

*I’m unemployed right now but even employed I couldn’t spend that on ONE ITEM of clothing.

Having said all this, I love the two-tone shoes, although I’m unlikely to buy them because I have “straight-sized” feet and rarely buy shoes in Evans, and I really like the domino print leggings and am considering an outfit consisting of them, a knee length black pouffy skirt and a white top. I could rock that.

Deena at Fat Girls Like Nice Clothes Too (a blog I love and I adore how Deena dresses – she’s so stylish) wrote about the collection here. Charlotte at Obesity Timebomb attended the launch and wrote about it here. Beth looks amazing in the photos. I only hope that her collection can sell.

I like My Chemical Romance. Oooh, it’s shameful, but I do. I have a very bad love of third-generation emo music, although NOT Fall Out Boy, definitely not Fall Out Boy. I don’t LOVE My Chem’s music but I do have a lot of time for the members themselves. They have a documentary call Life On The Murder Scene and it’s full of funny and touching moments where they love on each other and explain the origins of the band, etc etc.

(For instance, when talking about their [second] drummer Bob Bryar, Frank Iero says “If there is a God, I thank him every day for bringing us Bob Bryar”.)

The whole band is very into gay rights and stuff like that, and Gerard at least would describe himself as a feminist, I think. His wife Lyn-Z is the bassist in Mindless Self Indulgence, who I really like. MSI have TWO women! They both kick ass. I’m a fan of women in music.

I would have said that Frank Iero counted himself as a feminist too, but then he’s posted this on his Twitter and I’m now just getting vibes of over-privileged straight white guy who’s old enough and educated enough to know better but who probably thinks he’s made a hilarious joke.

To the two screaming prick faced toddlers who ruined my viewing of transformers last night, your mother should have sat on a coat hanger. Xo

Oh, abortion jokes are so funny! Especially ones referencing coathangers! I can’t see any problems at ALL with that, can you?

Sadly for Frank, I am a humourless feminist.

Go love on your drummer a bit more, Frank, you’ve got some making up to do

(And yes, I have Tweeted back at him telling him he’s old enough to know better. I’ll let you know if he responds. You might think he’s too famous for that, but My Chem all reply to people fairly often. We’ll see)